St Mary'S Hospital

St Mary's Hospital is a building originally constructed around 1766 as the Samford Hundred Incorporated House of Industry, designed to accommodate 500 paupers under Gilbert's Act of 1764, at a cost of £8,250. It underwent alterations in 1819 and 1837 to improve the classification of inmates and was converted into a hospital in the 20th century. The structure is made of red brick with red plain tiled roofs that are hipped at the ends and angles. It has an E plan layout with two back ranges separated by a carriageway, with the entrance located at the northwest. The central forward range, which is lower and apsed, was built later as a chapel. The building has two storeys and attics, with the forward left and right ranges being lower. It features moulded eaves cornices and end chimneys on the rear range. The original window arrangement has been modified, now including 20th-century flat-head dormers and various 20th-century metal casements, alongside some 18th-century and 19th-century small paned vertically sliding sashes. The courtyard-facing sides likely had 12 bays on the left and right, and possibly 13 bays on the rear range, with a central chapel consisting of 4 by 3 bays. A timber-framed and weatherboarded bell turret with a pointed hipped roof and moulded brackets to the eaves cornice rises from the centre of the northern rear range. Additionally, a 20th-century facade has been added to the south face of the eastern range. The hospital served 28 parishes for the maintenance of their poor, many of whom worked in spinning worsted yarn for Norwich manufacturers. In 1821, there were 319 inmates, and by 1841, the number had decreased to 191, as noted in White's Directory of Suffolk from 1844 and N. Pevsner's Suffolk from 1974.